IBS sufferers - how do you know if you’ve had an IBS flare up or a stomach bug?

[Interrobanger]

I’ve had IBS since my late teens but I’m very aware of my triggers and what my symptoms are and how to manage them.

For the past two days I’ve had really strange intermittent stomach cramps - they feel like contractions but in my stomach area, not lower down. Loads of rumbling and groaning noises and have had bouts of D, but only twice in 48 hours. It’s not really showing any sign of going away, yet I don’t feel ‘ill’. Apart from the random stomach pains and the D, I feel okay - no temp or anything.

Is this just yet another new IBS gift to enjoy? Or have I got a bug?

When you have a flare up, how can you tell?

I've just had four days of D type issues, but as I didn't know anyone who had had anything similar, I don't seem to have given it to anyone else in the family and I felt fine except for the world falling out of my bottom, I put it down to IBS, probably brought on by stress.

My sympathy! Hope you’re feeling much better today.

Is the IBS properly diagnosed to start with? Ie by exclusion after colonoscopy?

All you can really do is watch and wait. If it doesn't improve after a few weeks then go to GP. Don't just accept a permanent change/deterioration as it could be something else that needs treatment.

You definitely need scoping if you haven't already had one done, my consultant ordered a colonoscopy and an endoscopy to rule out other causes.

I ate two mince pies Saturday, one yesterday, awful indigestion during the night this morning a tsunami in the bathroom again and again. I dare not leave the house today . Sometimes I get loud gurgling after evening meal expect the worst but escape unscathed. It's such an odd condition. But someone on here said avoid sugar in my case that is correct

Fellow IBS suffer and my ibs appears in this form or if I am really anxious I'll get the everything I eat goes straight through me form!

Super uncomfortable but I find peppermint capsules and a hot water bottle or heat on the stomach helps x

IBS is such a bastard isn’t it? Bane of my fucking life. It’s always there in the back of my mind, anywhere we go I’m thinking - where’s the loo? What will I do if there’s no loo? Shall I take some Imodium beforehand just in case? Etc, etc, ad nauseum for the rest of my life…